Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Aaron's email March 20th 2012

Dear Family,
 
It's great to hear from you! That's really exciting to see and hear about everything that is going on!  Has Ashley received my letter I sent a while ago? I hope so and hope that she is doing well! By the way i am unable to view the videos you sent at the moment, the computer I use at the library is not equipped with the proper software, so hopefully someday soon I'll be able to view them. I bet that little Nolie is not so little anymore, and I'm going to have a nephew?? holy smokes!! that's so cool. How did your lesson go with your recent converts Dad? what did you teach? do you use Preach My Gospel? I know that she will become comfortable in your gospel essentials class, do you two teach that every week? do a lot of people attend your class? We have a few people come to both of our wards GE class, and our WML teaches in PQ3 and we have a teacher in PQ1 but we fill in wherever we can:) City creek sounds like it'll be a blast! and Mal will be an incredible teacher! How are the Goasy's? they wrote me when i first came out and i wrote them back but i haven't heard from them in a while. i hope all is well with them and the Cooks as well. Oh quick request! could i get some pictures of the family for my birthday? like physical pictures to look at?
 
For our St Patty's day we wore green ties and we had district meeting and Elder Saager and we were able to help out with PQ1's ward talent night and be the piano pushers haha, Elder Saager said he signed me up to sing but it didn't happen, but there were a lot of people who attended, including a couple of the people that we are working with, so that was great to see! Did i tell you about the challenge we had with one of our investigators? Well to update you on that, she did it! but she admitted to us she read pretty fast and may have missed a few things.  I love the Book of Mormon with all my heart, being able to read and to study it daily brings a new sense and a new level of peace and joy that i didn't think was possible, i know that it is truly the word of God and daily i grow closer to my Father in Heaven by reading and learning from the wonderful examples throughout the Book of Mormon.


Alright Miracle March update!! the night of the talent show we were talking to the smith's (a member family in our ward) and they told us they were trying to find us all day the Sunday before but we were no where in sight (which we're always running all over like crazy on Sundays to try and catch people so that's totally understandable) but they told us about an amazing experience that they had the past week. they were at a work dinner and the woman sitting at the table with them found out that they were members of the church and she(the non-member) LOVES David Archuletta, and she was asking them all about how the whole "mission" thing works because he is going to be serving. They told her a little bit about the church and they then told them that there are two missionaries actually serving near her home, and they could send them over, to this she replied "Really? great!" so we have since gotten her address and have gone by (but no one was home) so we'll keep on being persistent and we're always happy to talk about missionary work, so we've found that David Archuletta is a new way to find people to teach or to bring up the church in conversation with people. On Sunday Phil came to church, he's 3 weeks strong! His wife is the recent convert and he came for sacrament meeting and he's been enjoying it, and he is meeting a lot of the ward and making a lot of contacts with the church (he loves playing basketball with the men on Thursday evenings and our ward mission leader has a biking group that they go out and road bike once a week all together that Phil is planning on attending) and in PQ1 there were 3 Less-active families that came to church that we have been praying for and working with and they came on the right Sunday because it was the high council Sunday in that ward and the high councilor over missionary work spoke and his talk is one i like to call "the landmark talk for less-active members" he spoke about how they should come back to the gospel and don't worry about feeling uncomfortable or not knowing anybody's name or anything like that, i really cannot do it justice but he shared "the allegory of the 1972 Ford F-250" which was a great way to begin his talk, and it was incredible. A few things that he spoke about stuck out to me because i was thinking about mom's situation and he spoke on a few aspects of even those who move to a different ward (hint hint haha). He said to "be the person that you need" to say hi and to be the friend that you are looking for and he also counseled "don't hold an impossible standard- you're coming off goodbyes, missing friendships, so it's going to be a lot harder and we should do our best to avoid the thoughts of 'what does this ward have to offer?'". I know that we may feel uncomfortable at times, not knowing anyone or seeing so many unfamiliar faces, but he challenged us to be a friend to the friendless and to strive for and pray for help in adjusting to a new culture, a new home. Also we were able to go out with Bro. Smith who is just moving from Texas (he used to be the ward mission leader) and we were able to see some part-member families in the ward and one experience was incredible to me thinking and looking back upon it, we went and saw sister Jones, whom we've never met before and just got to talking and she found out that my companion has type 1 diabetes (don't worry I've been trained, i know what to do haha) and her husband has type 2 (he's not a member of the church) and so our discussion went to health and i was prompted to bring it back and to speak about how the world as a whole is truly coming to realize (maybe without even knowing) the true importance of the Word of Wisdom and how the Lord truly knows what's good for us and that He wants us to be healthy and clean and later on in our conversation, sister Jones brought up how she and her husband would like to quit smoking, and we offered to help them overcome that addiction and they are going to talk and pray about it together so they both can be there for each other through it and i know that our conversation was directed by the spirit to the Word of Wisdom to help sister Jones overcome her fear of attending church with the smell and simply wanting to stop. we hope and pray that we will be able to help the Jones' in their endeavor. I have really come to see the daily miracles that the Lord provides, even those small and seemingly insignificant miracles that oft times get overlooked. To this comes my thought of the week, "do not suppose that God willfully causes that which for His own purposes, He permits" there is a BIG difference between cause and permit to happen, we must keep in mind that there are so many things that He does prevent in our daily lives, that the Savior does anonymous service for us every single day, how many times do we pray for safety throughout the day, and we are safe?-little things like that. I know that when we truly do "count our MANY blessings" that the Lord will truly open our eyes so that we may truly see His bounteous blessings and His hand in every aspect of our lives. I love this work and i know that it is truly His work, i know that the Book of Mormon testifies and brings us closer to Christ and i know that He lives and loves each and every one of His children. Thank you for all that you do for me and i pray that you will each have gospel sharing experiences this week with which i hope that you will share with me:) I will keep you all in my thoughts and prayers, until next time.
 
-Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd

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